Monday, August 27, 2012

On unnecessary religious controversies!

I am not a very religious man but over years one simple story from Imam Abu Hanifa guided my way to live a tolerant life when it comes to religious beliefs. Someone asked Imam Abu Hanifa (on classic Shia-Sunni conflict among Muslims), what he thought who was on the right path in Jang-e-Jamal. He replied, "God will not ask me this question after death so I am not worried about it."

What he was implying that most differences are historical and what matters to All Mighty is your deeds.

5 comments:

beyond
said...

very true.i am a religious person myself but i have noticed that people do pay a lot of attention to trivial matters.the most famous one is what if a dog fall into a well.can one drink water from it?my Quran class teacher actually discourage such questions if somebody asks them:)

Yes, very true, I would like to be a religious man, I pray Allah to forgive me and grant me hidaya (aameen).This deep & old problem has lot of aspects, some are related to knowledge, some are related to curiosity, some are related to actions etc.. It is a multi-dimensional, multi-layer field of study (not a topic) and warrants very detail analysis on human psychology (individual, group, social, demographic and geographic) If we remind ourselves time to time what our Creator and prophet has instructed us, this may assist us to mind our own business, I just jot down below a few to give a snap short. Al-'Asr (the time)In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

1. By Al-Asr (the time).

2. Verily! Man is in loss.

3. Except those who believe in and do righteous good deeds, and recommendeach other to the truth, and recommend each another to patience.-----Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, narratedThe Messenger of Allah, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam, said, what translated means, 'A sign of one's excellence in his Islam, is ignoring what does not concern him.' [Related by Ahmad, Malik & At-Tirmithi]From Jaabir (radiyAllâhu 'anhu) who said that Allâh's Messenger (salAllâhu 'aliahi wa'sallam) said:"Do not acquire knowledge in order to compete with the scholars, nor to argue with the ignorant, nor to gain mastery over the gatherings. Since whoever does that, then: The Fire! The Fire!" (27)

Note

To protect privacy of people - names, places, and in many instances genders, time periods and ethnicity of characters in stories have been changed. But I have tried to keep theme and actual events as close to true events as possible.